The Ruined Death Knight

'Fast judgment with quick and lethal action, not bad' Danzel nodded at the 4 strongest fox people.

If they had reacted one or two seconds before the ending of his words, the ice trolls would have already been wary themself against the fox people.

But their quick action led to the death of one of the ice trolls while seriously injuring one of them.

But Danzel knew how stupidly resilient a troll could be.

Though compared to Sartan and those guys, in Danzel's opinion. They wouldn't even be worthy to be insects.

But a troll was a troll, even if those in front of him were ice trolls.

The 2 remaining ice trolls started to fight back against the 4 strongest and the few who escape from his ice.

Though, freeing yourself from the ice inflicted quite damage on the fox people. Some unlucky enough had their skin ripped off. Which made maneuvering far more challenging.

The 4 were strong, strong enough to be classified as one who stepped up in the 3rd-tier. But without the element of surprise, they couldn't inflict a lethal wound on the ice trolls.

And while those ice trolls were nothing to Danzel's eye, not even capable to regenerate a large limp or a heart.

Any other surface flesh wound was regenerated in mere seconds.

The man with his "claws" managed to pierce the stomach of one of the ice trolls. But it took only a short while later for his body to close the hole in his stomach.

While the 2 ice trolls were of the 2nd-tier of the higher end, they were brutes with physical-based attributes. Additionally, their large bodies were a weapon of their own.

They managed to trample some who were stuck on his ice while killing 2 people with just a punch.

Alas, the fight only lasted for more than a minute before the 4 strongest with a few others managed to kill both the ice trolls.

The white and black-haired "fox" managed to land a quick kick a little above the ice troll's calf, resulting in him to the knee.

Once on one knee, the many-tailed "fox" restrained him with her tails, leaving the ice troll back wide open for the golden "fox" to finish him off.

Which left the one-handed ice troll at the mercy of the 4 and the many fox people. Some of those people had vicious smiles on as they bullied the ice troll to death.

Danzel couldn't blame them for such reactions, after all, those guys were slaves to those ice trolls for who knows how long.

He himself was for an amount of time a slave, or more realistic prisoner under the hands of the shadow merchant.

'Their experience might have been 3 times worse than mine, considering their mortality.' Danzel thought as he turned his back to watch Shiro halfassed hiding behind him with her staff in hand and mask on.

"Shiro, I will need your magic in short." Danzel's whisper is loud enough for her to hear.

She turned her focus on him before nodding.

Turning his gaze away from her, Danzel pulled his sword out of the ground, cracking the ice as result.

*Crack~

The sound of cracking and his suddenly moving was noticed firsthand by the 4 strongest fox people.

Those 4 moved in front of everyone else and took defensive postures, while does that was freed of his ice stood behind them and in front of the rest.

Although the 4 strongest show determination to fight, Danzel could see the hesitation in their eyes with even the many-tailed "fox" looking to run away.

As for the others, they expressed their stress quite clearly.

Though Danzel focused only on the 4 strongest.

*Crack~Crack~Crack~

With each of his steps, the ice was cracking under his feet.

Stopping at the 8-meter mark, Danzel stares at the 4 with his ethereal eyes.

There was silence between the dead and the living that was gone for several seconds. The one to break the silence was Danzel with his chilling voice.

"Offer me your servitude while being one of the living. Do as such and I will offer the touch of my power to you. Refuse and your servitude will be eternal" Danzel said.

Of course, Danzel knew that from their perspective, he looked like a big bad undead asking to be his slave and potentially being turned into an undead.

And the lack of an immediate answer only proved his thoughts.

Although he couldn't blame them as their hesitation was justified.

Danzel wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"You answer?" Danzel said as the point of his sword barely touched the ground.

Resulting in the ice of the trapped people growing up to their knees in an instant.

The 4 strongest moved their eyes behind them for a split moment, surprised for the ice to move so fast even after having seen it once.

Now even those who were freed once were once again trapped, leaving the 4 strongest free to move.

Though once they moved their eyes back in front of them, there was no sight of Danzel to be seen.

"You all should know, that death is as horrible as swift with my blade." Danzel chilling words came from behind the 4 strongest as his body was let out pits of mist escape.

"!!!" The 4 strongest widen their eyes in shock at the appearance of Danzel behind them.

They only lost sight for a moment and he already moved past them without realizing it.

And now his aura itself was felt to the 4 very clearly.

Which was, nicely put, taunting.

The 4 of them immediately jumped away to create distance while under Danzel's silent gaze.

Though they already knew the difference in strength, seeing it with their own eyes was different.

"If we were to serve servitude...what will happen and of what power are talking about!?" The many-tailed "fox" said in a hurry.

"That was no answer." Danzel said as his killing intent washed over them.

Using [Phatom Phase], Danzel moved in almost an instant in front of the many trails and grabbed her neck with a swift movement.

"But I will humor your question. My very will shall be everyone's else will. I have no especially need of your bodies and I won't put you to slave away at mines and such. Even if I did, the dead would be better than any of you." Danzel said as he let go of her neck, making her fall to the ground and gasp for air.

"As for the promised power...the worthy shall be granted access to it." Danzel said.

'Wherever the worthy survive or not though is not guaranteed.' Danzel didn't say this last bit and only thought about it.

Though Danzel didn't want to play the god of death at them, he needed information.

And not just information about the frozen lands.

As those guys were slaves, the chance of them from multiple tribes was quite high in his opinion. That information alone was enough to save time in mapping this white place and working forward to going back to the main lands filled with war.

He also needed them to direct how his draugr should mine ore and all. His idea was to place the tireless draugr to mine for him to transport to the Vashara village to the blacksmith.

Although carving runes at corpses was now profitable, eventually he was going to reach a limit with the number of corpses that they are. He needed weapons to carve runes to improve his runesmithing not knowing how long they were to stay on those frozen lands.

Lastly, he wanted to finally try out the idea he had once he acquired the Great Runes.

And that was carving the runes into one of the living.

'In theory, it should be possible considering the description of [Great Rune of World's Gaia] having a version for living and undead. Wherever the processes are survivable though...' Danzel shook his head internally before looking at the rest 3.

"Last time, you answer?" Danzel said in his cold voice.

Though in the end, wherever they refused or not, Danzel was still going to get what he was after.

As for carving runes into living beings, he wasn't planning to do it in front of Shiro.

'At worst, I will choose an ice troll to tortur-, no, to give power.' Danzel thought as he waited for their answer.

The 4 strongest exchanged looks with each other, before finally nodding to each other and falling to both knees and hands to the ground.

"Please...let us serve, oh strong one..." the many-tailed "fox" said with the others awkwardly repeating after her.

Danzel nodded before rising his sword and piercing the ground once more as he did before.

"Good."

*Crack~

Once inside the ground, the ice that trapped the people broke apart into small shards, freeing them. Albeit their legs still received damage, resulting in many falling to the ground.

"Shiro, come." Danzel called Shiro, who run towards him with Baron behind her.

The 4 gazed at Shiro in silence as to why a small child was with someone like Danzel.

Though they were warier towards the floating robed shadow close behind her.

They felt his gaze and they felt threatened.

Once Shiro arrived beside Danzel, he only said two words.

"Do it."

Knowing what he meant, she walked beside him and raised her staff, aimed toward the many people.

The fox people were wary and scared by such a motion, but soon enough, a warm light started to shower everyone, which mended their wounds and bruises.

"She and I shall be who you will serve. Those who go against my or her will shall have their body to serve and their soul destroyed for all eternity."